[HN Gopher] My Steam Game Revenue Stats
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My Steam Game Revenue Stats
Author : donislawdev
Score : 41 points
Date : 2021-07-23 19:51 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (donislawdev.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (donislawdev.com)
| pengaru wrote:
| The market is far too crowded to rely entirely on the steam store
| for your exposure.
|
| I'd like to know what the numbers are like for indie devs with
| their own twitch channel who constantly stream the development
| process, establishing a fan base throughout the year(s) of
| development before releasing on steam.
| Tarsul wrote:
| As far as I know we users cannot see how many sales a game has
| from steam, so I very much appreciate the creator telling us. I
| often try to judge from the number of reviews if a game has made
| at least a few thousand bucks. This game here has 19 reviews with
| 420 sales, which means that 4,5% of all people have reviewed the
| game, which is more than I expected (I expected a ratio of about
| 1%). But this means that probably other games that have only a
| few dozen reviews have sold comparably (poorly).
|
| As an aside, me personally, I don't like early access games; I'd
| rather wait till the game is finished. I'm probably not the only
| one thinking like that. So I find it difficult to guess how
| different the sales projectory would be if it didn't have the
| "early access" status, but with any luck the creator will tell us
| once he has released V1.0 :)
| chills wrote:
| Steamdb[1] gives some info on concurrent players, but only
| estimates for owners. Looks like they estimate number of
| reviewers between 5-15%.
|
| [1]: https://steamdb.info/app/1404560/graphs/
| jonshariat wrote:
| When I wrote my book, they did an early access thing at it was
| terrible. I was still understanding where to take my book and
| iterate and I was getting people telling me it sucked. Uh ya,
| its not finished at all yet, just v1!
|
| Not a fan. I mean I get Betas and access to things say a month
| or so before launch. But not during active development.
| Hammershaft wrote:
| I mean, a book is a predefined narrative that you experience
| once sequentially! Much less suited to open iterative
| development than a game.
| DrJokepu wrote:
| If it's a game I'm excited about, I sometimes buy the early
| access to support the developers pre-release and only play it
| once it's done.
| flaque wrote:
| There's an interesting GDC talk about this for folks who are
| curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WycVOCbeKqQ
| evo_9 wrote:
| "In terms of cash, it was not worth it, if we count costs
| (without time) + taxes, then the "earnings" from those $632 will
| be lower than 0. I had lost the cash, the first month is mostly
| the "best" month of sales, so my next month's sales will be worse
| and worse, maybe a few % of my first month. Someone might be
| curious why I'm still keeping early access, working on the game,
| to be honest, I don't believe in some magic "boom" and millions
| of players, I'm just fixing bugs, adding new things because...
| People have paid for the game :-} I could drop it because Yerba
| Mate Tycoon generated cash loss (working more on it, generate
| bigger losses). But people paid for it, it got some players, so I
| will work on it :-} I know that some developers drop in that
| situations game, it's a logical step from a business side, but
| it's against my work ethic. I never promised huge things, but I
| have to finish what I started."
| jay_kyburz wrote:
| You can't really make a super niche game and expect it to sell
| well. Nobody knows what Yerba Mate is. Nobody is searching for
| Yerba Mate.
|
| Also, the video is funny, but it really doesn't tell us
| anything about what you do. It doesn't show us the consequences
| of any of your decisions.
|
| Anyhow, I wish the developer all the best. I hope sales to pick
| up and that they enjoyed making the game.
| cinntaile wrote:
| Why do you want to make an iOS/Android version when the game
| isn't very popular right now? You mention the competition will be
| a lot higher so why do you think it will be worth it?
| hsbauauvhabzb wrote:
| Don't downplay the value to you in fixing bugs, customer support
| etc. you'll be better equipped when you release a title that is
| successful.
| imtringued wrote:
| It's also easy to burn bridges by canceling early access games.
| The vast majority of people should stay away from early access
| games by default because of the risk that the game remains
| unfinished.
| thrdbndndn wrote:
| >the first month of Steam early access (15.06 to 15.07 June/July)
|
| This is very confusing
| yreg wrote:
| How is it confusing? 15th of June to 15th of July.
| Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
| People in _some countries_ are accustomed to using a very
| weird mm /dd date format, probably that's the case here?
| smolder wrote:
| It's the euro DD before MM style of date writing.
| techrat wrote:
| The game is far, far too much of a niche style game for it to
| even be all that popular, IMHO. I'm not quite sure what the Dev
| here expected to happen. It's also Early Access and it's fair to
| say that unless a game has broad appeal (which shop simulators
| don't) and hype (definitely not in this case), people tend to
| stay away from Early Access games from unknown developers with
| insubstantial catalogs. I know I do, been burned enough times.
|
| I'm not saying 'feel bad', here... more along the lines of 'lower
| your expectations'. Unless you have a big publishing house
| backing you, marketing money being spent, your first title isn't
| going to be profitable... and that's before you consider the type
| of game it is.
| ManBlanket wrote:
| He could yet get another bump in sales from a 1.0 release, but
| you're right the stars are just not aligned to make Yerba Mate
| Tycoon an indie smash. This was not necessarily a story of loss
| though. Taking a project all the way to release is a feat, and
| his attitude toward finishing the game, not to mention
| supporting it after release is commendable. All this seems like
| it helps position the developer to solicit publishers for
| future projects, convince others to work with him, and even
| help sway potential buyers of future projects. Not to mention
| it's a critical learning experience, feedback like yours is
| very helpful. All things considered pretty successful for a
| first game. This dude definitely has the potential to turn a
| profit in the future.
| tekromancr wrote:
| Tenth game, according to the post
| bogwog wrote:
| > At launch, I was selling my game for $3.5 (10% discount), then
| the price went back to the full price of $4.
|
| Why would you launch with a discount?
| avereveard wrote:
| It has become customary for early access titles to have an
| early bird discount
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(page generated 2021-07-23 23:00 UTC)